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“Stone Cold” Steve Austin says there is a 99.9 percent chance he has wrestled his last match. But, he is reserving the right to have one final match, even though he does not see much upside for himself.
“For all practical, intrinsic, whatever kind of purposes, I’m done,” Austin told Brian Fritz for Fox Sports. “If I felt like it, could I? Yeah. Would I? In a dream world, possibly. I’m not trying to promote a match and pretty much I am done. I would always reserve the option.”
“I considered it (facing Brock Lesnar) for just a brief moment but again, just like I tell everybody, what’s on the backside of a match like that, you know? I got out of the business when I got out. The hunger was out of my system. It’s almost like getting off an addiction. I’m not addicted to wrestling anymore. For a long time I was. So what’s on the backside of that match for me? A whole lot of nothing. So it would be a lot of build-up and, to me, it would be almost anti-climactic.”
Austin says not being in a position to wrestle again to is the main reason why he wants to stay off main WWE television.
“If I’m not going to be the guy getting in the ring, how much havoc, how much chaos can I create? What can I contribute to, the end product, that’s not going to the squared circle. I’m not wrestling anymore. I’m out of that part of my career and it doesn’t make sense to have me on TV for no reason if it’s not going to end up in the squared circle. That’s pretty much the reason.”
That points to why there was such a back-and-forth about Austin appearing on the “Legends” Raw in October. In the days leading up to the show, Austin was officially listed on WWE’s website. However, he publicly stated that he was not going to appear on Raw, simply interview Brock Lesnar live on the WWE Network podcast.
Similar to Dave Bautista pointing out in a recent interview why he felt like WWE is disorganized, Austin said he was told about his Raw appearance via text message on Monday morning.
“It was what it was,” Austin said. “It was short, brief. I had four announcements to make. I got handed a piece of paper: ‘Yeah, I’ll be ready for Raw, yeah, I’ll be ready for (WrestleMania) 32 in Dallas. I’ve got Brock Lesnar coming up in a couple of hours and I’m going to introduce The Undertaker right now.’ So, you know, when you ain’t been on TV for four years and you’d really like to go out there and uncork a promo and just raise hell for my 6-10 minutes, it left a lot to be desired for my part, but it was doing a favor for WWE.”
Part of that is Austin feeling restricted on being “Stone Cold” Steve Austin – a character who thrived in a different era.
“Man, the system is very constricted right now,” Austin said. “I feel for the guys in the system. I had a lot more creative freedom back in the day. These days, it’s a very rigid system and it’s very political. Because of the system that I was in, I could never comply to the current system. I ain’t knocking it. I’m just saying I couldn’t fly in that system with so many restrictions on me.”
Right now, Austin is content promoting the new “WWE 2K16” video game, filming his reality competition shows for CMT, podcasting, and staying busy on his ranch.
Looking head, Austin fully expects to appear at WrestleMania 32 in his home state of Texas, but he’s not thinking about a match.
“If there was ever a reason to have a beer bash, I think that’s the best idea I’ve heard so far because no one has mentioned to me anything for WrestleMania 32. They know I’m not interested in wrestling. I’m not going to wrestle. But a beer bash at WrestleMania 32 is a pretty dang good idea,” Austin said.
Oh Please, people. GET OVER IT. The man was arguably the biggest star in the business, but he’s been retired from active wrestling for 16 years now. He’s not coming back, he shouldn’t come back, and you should move on with your life.